Dolder Grand Hotel Zurich

8/13/2019 Dolder Grand Hotel Zurich

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Dolder Grand Hotel Zurich, Switzerland 2002-2008

Description

Towering above Lake Zurich, the historic The Dolder Grand has been reinvented to form a luxury-class city

resort. The scheme integrates a substantial new extension, more than doubling the hotel accommodation

and reconnecting it to the surrounding forest and resort. Remarkably, although it provides double the floor

space, the new building consumes half the energy of the old - or 75 per cent less energy per square metre.

The Dolderbahn cog railway station has been reinstated, enabling the local community to enjoy the site

while experiencing something of the building itself.

The scheme restores the logic of the original hotel, designed in 1899 by Jacques Gros, and the external

fabric has been restored and rendered in the original red and ochre palette.

Internally, the planning has been transformed. The most significant moves have been to create a linked

suite of grand public rooms, including a new ballroom, and to reinstate the grand southern entrance so

that arriving guests now enjoy breathtaking views across Zurich and the Alps. Two new wings frame the

historic Dolder, complementing the addition of a spa and a new ballroom.

The new wings are fully glazed; and stencil-cut aluminium screens line the facades to form balustrades and

provide shading, their tree pattern resonating with the surrounding forest. While the geometry of the new

elements is fluid and organic, the colour palette echoes that of the existing building to harmonise the

overall composition.

A highlight of the hotel is the new 4,000-square-metre spa. The winding stone walls that begin in the

landscape continue inside to frame a canyon-like space for the pool. In some areas the walls are perforated

to allow sunlight to filter in, and provide a dynamic play of light and shadow while maintaining absoluteprivacy. Geothermal heat pumps beneath the spa contribute to the efficient energy strategy. This is further

enhanced by a high-performance envelope comprising insulated triple-glazing and natural shading.


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Cranfield University Library Cranfield, UK 1989-1992

Description

Founded in 1946 as a school for aeronautical engineers, Cranfield University is today one of Britains

leading technical education and research establishments, incorporating a wide range of postgraduate

studies, and is a major foreign currency earner for research contracts. The new library was commissioned

to provide a much-needed focus for the developing campus. Consistent with the innovation characteristic

of the university as a whole, its design reformulates the concept of the library away from the closed book

stacks, forbidding screens and security barriers of traditional libraries to something lighter, more open and

accessible.

Built on a square plan, the building consists of four barrel-vaulted, steel-framed bays, one of which forms a

broad central atrium - the hub of the library - linking all three floors.

The overhanging roof provides sheltered walkways along the sides of the building, while at the front it

extends to create a vaulted entrance canopy. Commentators have note d the buildings evocation of a

classical temple, complete with peristyle and portico, which is perhaps appropriate given the symbolic role

it plays at the heart of the campus.

In contrast to the traditional library, maximum use is made of glare-free natural light and views, with

rooflights at the apex of each vault bringing natural light to the atrium and upper floors. Daylight is evenly

distributed across the ceiling by gull-wing deflectors and can be supplemented by indirect lighting from

continuous fluorescent tubes.

External shading to the glass facades minimises heat gain during the summer months and allows

comfortable conditions to be maintained through a ventilation-only system. The seven kilometres of openbookshelves are located on the upper levels, freeing the ground-floor entrance area for social uses,

focused around a coffee bar. Storage systems are designed to adapt easily to advances in information

technology, while a perimeter desking system allows students to plug in their own laptop computers and

have instant access to the Universitys electronic databases.


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Saint Benedict Chapel / Peter Zumthor

The Saint Benedict Chapel, located in the village of Sumvitg, Graubnden, was designed by the Pritzker

Prize Laureate Peter Zumthor in 1988. The modest, human-scaled exterior of the chapel encapsulates the

beauty and simplicity of Zumthors works, while the interior showcases his unparalleled craftsmanship.

The chapel was constructed in the small village of Sumvitg following a 1984 avalanche that destroyed the

baroque-style chapel of the village. The hillside site for the new chapel, which provides breathtaking

mountainous views, is protected from future avalanches by a surrounding forest.

In an interview with The New York Times, Zumthor once explained his process: When I start, my first idea

for a building is with the material. I believe architecture is about that. Its not about paper, its not about

forms. Its about space and material.

Although Zumthor used modern materials and techniques for this particular design, the cylindar-shaped

chapel blends naturally into its context, without offending the traditional and historical dimension of the

Alpine village. For example, the chapel is constructed with wooden shingles and snips, similar to the local

traditional houses.

The roof of the chapel is reminiscent of the hull of a boat. Mediating between the expressive roof and the

more traditional, wooden base below, is an elegant, minimal solution: a ring of vertical wood columns and

glass panels that crown the chapel, allowing natural light to penetrate the interior space.

The single interior space contains minimalist wooden columns, beams and benches, s howcasing Zumthors

craftsmanship and his delicate approach to material and details.

Documents

Dolder Grand Hotel Zurich